Conventionally, tennis racquets have a head portion defining an opening which contains a plurality of interwoven main (i.e., longitudinal) and cross strings which form a strung hitting surface. The strung surface lies generally in a plane located midway between the front and rear faces of the frame member.
It has been proposed, as an alternative to a single strung surface, to provide two parallel strung surfaces lying generally on opposite sides of the frame, i.e., a double strung racquet. Double strung racquets offer potential advantages over a single strung racquet. However, in practice designing a double strung racquet that would be commercially acceptable poses unique problems. The frame must be strong enough to carry the load of the additional strings, and yet remain at an acceptable weight. Further, the frame must have an acceptable construction in terms of how the strings are secured to the frame.
While there have been a number of previous proposals for double strung racquets, it would be desirable to provide a double strung racquet which, compared to racquets having a single stringing plane, provides two strung surfaces without unduly increasing the weight, which has a frame which provides performance comparable to a single strung racquet, and which has an improved construction, compared to prior proposals for double strung racquets, for securing the strings to the frame.